Features June 1992
The crisis in concert programming
On thematic programming and its implications.
Concert programming is indeed a difficult craft, always trying to accomplish something for the audience and something for the musicians. So far as the audience is concerned, the process is like sandwich-making: the tasty filling must remain in the middle, surrounded by an envelope made of wholesome, not always exciting, but always graspable material. In another way, programming is a horse trade: a combination of what the audience wants and what the musical mind making the program thinks is good for them. In still another way, programming is like couture: the music played must be a suitable vehicle for the performers, making them sound—and even look—more glamorous than they otherwise might. Last, and often least, concert programs have an educational purpose: they must teach by balancing the familiar with the unfamiliar, the quickly perceived with that which takes repeated hearings to make its effect.
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